2 hospitals hit in airstrikes in rebel-held northern Syria

More than 20 people reportedly killed in rebel-held region

Members of the Syria Civil Defense, a Western-funded group, evacuate a toddler from the rubble of buildings near the National Hospital on Tuesday in Idlib, Syria, after a barrage of airstrikes.

Members of the Syria Civil Defense, a Western-funded group,...

BEIRUT - Rescue workers pulled children and other victims from the rubble of two hospitals in a city in insurgent-held northern Syria on Tuesday morning after the latest aerial bombardments.

The attacks in Idlib began Monday night, and, witnesses said, they appeared to be airstrikes conducted by Syrian government forces or their Russian allies. Rescue workers and anti-government activists said that more than 20 people had been killed, with dozens more injured.

Video posted online by anti-government activists, showed rescuers from the Syria Civil Defense, a Western-funded group also known as the White Helmets, working amid rubble and half-destroyed buildings near the National Hospital. One worker pulled a toddler from underneath broken slabs of concrete, still alive.

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Another rescuer cradled a dead child, covered with gray dust, retrieved from the rubble after hours of digging. He explained to the camera that the child's parents and siblings had also been found dead.

Hospitals have been hit regularly during the five-year civil war in Syria - sometimes several hospitals or clinics in a single day. Earlier this spring, more than half a dozen medical facilities were attacked in about a week in the divided city of Aleppo.

Opposition activists and international human rights groups have said that hospitals appear to be deliberately targeted by government forces as a way of punishing civilians in rebel-held areas.

The Russian and Syrian governments have said that they are carrying out attacks aimed at terrorists, and Russia has denied that its strikes against the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front and militants of the Islamic State have caused civilian casualties.

"The Russian aviation hasn't performed any combat tasks, moreover hasn't conducted any airstrikes in the province of Idlib," the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said Tuesday in a statement quoted by the Associated Press.

Day before deadline

The latest barrage in Idlib came a day before a deadline that the United States, Russia and other interested governments had set for themselves to deliver supplies by airdrop to besieged areas even without permission from the Syrian government. President Bashar Assad has blocked land delivery of aid to towns besieged by his forces.

Now, U.N. officials appear to be backing away from airdrops, saying that the U.N. aid agency rules require permission from the Syrian government - something that is unlikely to happen because there is no reason to expect that the government would allow airdrops in areas where it has prohibited land convoys.

Airdrops are more expensive and less reliable than ground deliveries, but several have been carried out with government permission to Deir el-Zour, which is under assault by Islamic State militants.